Is Disney ruining its cartoon classics?

Disney has a long-standing practice of rereleasing its most beloved animated titles in spiffed-up new packages, all of which purportedly feature the most cutting-edge transfers that technology can produce. Yet as one Twitter user illustrated Monday night, the studio’s restoration process may do far more harm than good — and fans, predictably, weren’t happy to learn this ugly truth.

Dublin-based artist Stephen Duignan took to Twitter to point out the many ways in which Disney has transformed — for the worse — movies like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, all in an effort to “enhance” them for the high-def era.

The Blu-ray of CINDERELLA (right) has been so scrubbed of grain that they've actually destroyed the linework in some scenes pic.twitter.com/TlqiVk5eY6

Disney's whole process of "restoration" on high-profile releases is actually completely destructive of the original image, i.e. the original cel animation and background art as shot on film 80-30 years ago

The problem is that the Blu-ray of SLEEPING BEAUTY, for example, isn't a presentation of the film from 1959 – it's a new, digital creation assembled in 2003, divorced from the cultural context of the original film https://t.co/nVowW4PRI3

Unsurprisingly, Duignan’s thread inspired some unhappy comments from both cinephiles and Disney enthusiasts, who viewed such alterations (which many claim can be found in numerous Disney releases) as a form of bastardization — and a sign that the studio isn’t truly committed to maintaining the original versions of its classics.

This is an example of what I’ve talked about on here in the past: the aesthetic tyranny of consumer technology, which insists that older art be forced to look “new“ even if means erasing its original character. https://t.co/iMlYEDiIvx

IIRC, I think the reason why the Cinderella & Sleeping Beauty remasters look so terrible is because they wanted the character’s dresses to match the merchandise. It’s a stupid idea and the reason why I avoid buying em.

In an era marked by constant director’s cuts and special editions (we’re looking at you, Star Wars — which is also owned by Disney!), it is probably to be expected that such problems would naturally arise. Still, what say you, fellow readers? Is Disney improving its movies by tinkering this way, or is the studio ruining the very things it is trying to save?